Garh Panchkot

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"Located in the eastern part of India in a remote place known as Garh Panchkot in the district of Purulia, West Bengal, the ruins of the Panchkot Palace are a silent testimony to the Portuguese attack during the 18th century.

Overview
Legend has it that the defeated King of Panchkot was forced to flee the palace leaving his 17 wives behind. The helpless queens watched in vain the advancing army and instantly knew the consequences. Keeping with the traditions prevailing during those times, each one of them committed suicide in a near-by well.

Dhara; Disgraced by the sordid event, today portrays the agony, helplessness and the reminiscences of the past.

Frozen in time, the remains of the palace silently speak of the shattered visions of a King defeated, Every broken wall, every dome, each temple peep out of the over grown foliage, wary and anxious of another ambush.

Garh PanchakotAs the name suggests “Garh” means a fort in Sanskrit. What is amazing is the combination of natural and man made resources that were used to build it. No one knows whether this was done consciously or it just happened.

Let’s start with the entrance to the palace. A semi-circle mote was built which started from one end of the foothill to the other end. The only way to enter the place was by crossing the mote using a boat at the center of the semi-circle. The rest of the area was either inaccessible due to large growth of bamboo trees, a special type of bamboo trees which grew thick wild making it very difficult for intruders and a thick and high stonewall.

It didn’t end there; at 600 feet above in the middle of the Panchakot Hill were the guard’s quarters. It was in contrast to the architecture of the palace below, as it was completely made of huge stones slabs. From what is known it was built around 600 to 700 hundred years back; how the blocks of stones were carried to this height is not known though one can only guess from the grooves left on the stones. A series of grooves were made mostly on the surface of the stone blocks, which ran right across from top to bottom. These could have been fastened to a leather belt and then using a coir rope pulled by the workers as that was one of the ways huge boulders were moved during those days.

What is fascinating is the strategic position of the guard’s quarter. Spread over a 500 square meters area is more of a miniature fort surrounded by solid rock walls with only one entry point, the pyramid like hollow gate from where the entire palace below and the surroundings could be watched.

Once inside the fort, on the right as well as left there are two long and narrow rooms with small vents overlooking the plains. In the center stands a stone temple dedicated to Rama the king of ayodhya, this signifies that it was truly a guards quarter as more appropriately the people who guarded the area were the elite warriors and generally worshipped Rama as he represented strength, courage and who had fought many wars. From the other remains one can’t ascertain the true nature of it’s usefulness; a hollow lions head made of stone known as the “Singh Mukh” or other artifacts mostly made of stone.

TemplesThe king was a Rajput chieftain who believed in Shaktism, although the Temples reflect his inclination towards Vaishavism. This could be due to the influence of Sri Chaitanya a proponent of Vaishavism, during that period. The two distinctive architectural styles, which are evident from the temples, are the Bishnupuri style and a much older architectural style of using stone blocks. It is believed that the Bishnupuri styled temples housed Krishna and the followers were mostly vegetarians whereas the Stone Temples housed the figure of Kali and the followers were non-vegetarians and also believed in animal sacrifice. This lends credence to the fact that the King was tolerant towards other beliefs as one more Jain cave can be found in the vicinity.

There is another very old stone temple, which is dedicated to Rama. This could be because it is believed that most of the Hindu Kings of India were Raghu-Vanshis or descendents of Rama the mythical and legendary king as per the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Guards Quarter600 ft above sea level in the middle of Panchakot hill the guard’s quarter stands as a formidable fort.

Defense MoteThe “Singha-dwar” was the only entrance to the area. Today, the mote has been reduced to a mere pond with a road running through the middle of it. A broken entrance gate for the boats is what remains of the once famous “Singh Dwar”. After crossing the Singha Dwar it’s about 7 km to the Palace. The curved road is through the bamboo bush, which was planted as a second line of defense. Even during the middle of the afternoon the road is dark due to the bamboo bush along the roadside.

Arms and AmmunitionDuring those days in India, warfare was mainly fought with bows and arrows, spear, swords, daggers, Canons, etc. It was shear strategy and numbers that mattered not the arms. In a phased out manner it started with Swords fights

ArmyFoot soldiers, an infantry of horse riders and elephants.

Palace - Rani Mahal

Portuguese AttackThere aren’t many details about why or how the Portuguese came to this remote part of West Bengal. Though it is believed that during the 16th century there was a Portuguese presence in that area. The Portuguese came to India in 1498 AD. After having set base in Goa they spread out to explore the rest of India for trading purposes. As it is known that they set up a factory in Hoogly near Calcutta and also the missionary penetrated into the remote parts of Bengal.

The Portuguese presence could have been a reason for the attack as a chance of conflict of interest with the King of Panchkot was very evident. The whole region is also known as “Maan-Bhum” which literally translates to a land of pride, where pride was above all things. People killed their close relatives for the sake of pride. So it wouldn’t require a Sigmund Freud to answer what led to this animosity between the King and the Portuguese but still no one knows the exact reason. From a religious angle during the 16th century that area used to be a hub for religious activity. Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity and local pagan practices became very prominent and the convergence of religious practices reflected in all walks of life there.

So could it be that the King was defending the spread of Christianity in that area which led to this attack or was the King afraid that he would have to part with his kingdom? Maybe no one will ever come to know what transpired but the reality is that the Portuguese ransacked the King’s palace. Dishonored and defeated the King retreated to a place called Kashipur.

"“Borgi elo deshe khajna debo kise” is a very common phrase in the villages near Garh Panchokot which literally means – The Portuguese have come to our place who will we pay the taxes!"